The Iowa Democratic Caucus, 2008, by Anonymous

From MemoryArchive

Who: Anonymous
What: Going to the Iowa Democratic Caucus
When: January 3, 2008
Where: Iowa City, Iowa

I went to the Caucus last. It was something else. In my precinct over 600 people of every age, color, creed and kind turned out on a cold night in January to "stand" with their candidate. That's a lot of folks. It was good to see many of my neighbors and colleagues. Everyone was well behaved. There was a festive atmosphere--lots of color, excitement, laughter. There were kids running around, and some babies. Things were generally well organized. There was one misinterpretation of the rules, but that was cleared up quickly. The big surprise was that Hillary was not "viable" after the first vote--only Edwards and Obama made it through. In the end, they split the 9 delegates 3/6. It was interesting to note that the average age in the Edwards group was, say, 45, while the average age in the Obama group was 25. I guess experience folks don't think Obama has enough experience and inexperienced folks don't think experience counts for much. We'll see how it turns out soon.